Do you know who your Friends are? (The official word on the new look for LEGO Friends in 2018)

The callout on the Friends Set packaging has had an update in 2018… a sign of things to come.

Recently, we have seen images of the new LEGO Friends Sets for 2018, and there have been a few interesting surprises. Not only the presence of teal, but our protagonists have had a bit of a makeover. In fact, this is possibly the most obvious aspect.

All sorts of theories have been bandied around: colored contact lenses, eye damage due too much time in the tanning salon, extreme perms, but perhaps the most simple answer is that after five years, the line is getting a bit of a refresh…

Here is the official word from the Friends Design Team about the new looks that we are seeing in 2018:

Every year we strive to innovate and make our products even better for children all over the world. A lot of effort has gone into the development of the LEGO characters and universes across our entire product range, so it makes us very happy when changes are noticed.

LEGO Friends in 2018 looks a bit different than what it has in the past. To be specific, the 5 main characters have a slightly different look but also the city and the citizens of Heartlake City have changed.

But what are the reasons for the change?

Firstly, we want to assure you that all 5 friends are still there in 2018.
Andrea, Mia, Emma, Stephanie and Olivia – they all still exist! Also the character’s main interests and personalities remain mainly unchanged.

What you will see in 2018 is an evolution of LEGO Friends, a progression of the story and characters to make sure children get an even greater play experience. Every year more than a million children and parents reach out to us and share what they love and what they would like to change. In the LEGO Friends range children told us that they would like even more differentiated characters and also suggested improvements to Heartlake City.

We always take great care to listen to input from children, and the LEGO Friends team has worked hard to make even more engaging and relevant experiences for children – and also make the LEGO Friends universe more true to the actual world children live in.

Taking a starting point in reality, we’ve made the characters more diverse in their appearance and have added more depth to their personality. And of course, they still live in Heartlake City. But just as the characters have changed, Heartlake City has become more differentiated and rich. There are different districts and there are other citizens that play a more active role in the story.

The changes we have made does not change the fact that previous and new LEGO Friends sets will cater for great building and play experience in 2018 and beyond, and we hope to inspire even more stories and play opportunities for children in the future.

While we can think what we like about the changes, it will add to the ongoing diversity in our characters. For the last five years, Heartlake City has been a relatively homogeneous town- it will now go on to reflect more closely on the world that the target market wish to play in. For those of you who who have a Minidoll based city layout, you have a whole new collection of faces for the town.

Personally, I like the fact that we now have vintage Friends Minidolls to collect. What do you think about the new look? Why not add your comments below, and follow the Rambling Brick for new stories, updates and random opinion.

Hi we really don’t like the changes in the LEGO friend girls. They just look too different. (This was a comment from my 8 year old daughter – my girls are distinctly unimpressed by the changes! I agree – 4 out of 5 have different eye colour or skin colour so how can they still be the same characters?) PS great work with all the articles on the blog!

My daughter noticed the changes first and told me that the LEGO Friends had been re-imaged in the newest sets. She was, as the previous comment indicated, DISTINCTLY UNIMPRESSED. I didn’t see it, at first but as it turns out, she was right.

With the exception of Mia who seems more the part with natural lips and green eyes, We are really unhappy with the changes. As a parent, the new styles seem too grown up and pardon the term “slutty”. And how can we be expected to see them as the same characters/personalities with such dramatic changes (eye color, skin tone)? I feel that a better way to introduce diversity and make Heartlake City better reflect the “real world”, would have been to bring new characters into the story line.

I look at is they are growing up along with our children who play with Lego Friends are getting older. For the eye color change? Do your eyes change color has the older you get? Mine don’t. So unless they all wear contacts why the eye color change?